Enable Facebook Chat Heads On iPhone System-wide With ‘Message Box’

Message Box, a tweak which allows iOS users to enjoy a full Chat Heads experience system-wide on iOS based on the Facebook app, has just been released, and we’ve got the details coming up right after the break!

The limitations of the iOS ecosystem meant that when Facebook decided to make a big statement in mobile circles with its Home launcher and subsequent Chat Heads integration to the Facebook Messenger for Android app, iPhone users were going to have to make do with very crippled, scarcely noteworthy, half-baked Chat Heads integration with the Apple platform’s corresponding Facebook app.

Despite iOS’s inherent restrictiveness, we’re fortunate enough to be blessed with a dedicated and talented jailbreaking scene which, in light of the recent Evasi0n exploit, still continues to thrive, and no sooner did iOS users bemoan the comparatively dreadful Chat Heads feature than did one developer immediately stand up and offer a solution.

Developer Adam Bell was swiftly on the case, and having teased a beta version of Message Box soon after the update to version 6.0 of Facebook for iOS, has just released it for public consumption.

Once you have installed Message Box tweak and resprung or restarted your device, you’ll want to fire up the official Facebook app on your device. When you start a chat conversation with one of your Facebook Friends, a Chat Head should then appear, and thanks to Message Box, it will still remain in view when you press the home button to exit the app.

It will float around the home screen and over any other app just like the Android version, and although it is still, strictly speaking, in beta, Message Box actually functions really well considering Bell has only spent a couple of weeks carefully preparing it. Since it is a beta release, though, don’t be surprised if you do encounter one or two teething issues along the way.

So, if you yearn to try out Chat Heads but haven’t reached the point of considering purchasing an Android just yet, please give Message Box a go. It will soon be available on BigBoss repo as a free download. For those of you who cant wait, can download the .deb file from GitHub right now and install it using iFile. Oh, and be sure to let us know how you get on by dropping a comment below.

UPDATE x1: Message Box for iPhone is now available on Cydia for free. Go grab it now!